Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 3)

[JoeMercer'sWay]

of course we looked fitter than Newcastle, the team that played for us has had a nice rest whilst Newcastle went for broke to make amends for their derby and are now fucked for Saturday.

 

[George Hannah]

seeing Manuel, Ruben and Kiddo on the touchline is like watching an episode of Last of The Summer Wine ( I say this with a degree of empathy of course)

 

[cavendishblue]

Pellers is a less driven, less obsessive individual than Mancini (or a Benitez or a Mourinho or a Pep) and consequently the team is less driven to go the extra 1 or 2 percent that is the difference between success and failure at the highest level. It is not even a concious thing but you just settle at the level that is expected of you collectively and individually by the man in charge. And with Pellers this level is below what is needed to win trophies consistently.

I just wish Pellers was driven to the airport as soon as possible, if dignified venerability is what we need I'm sure Brian Kidd will suffice. Get that Pochettino in and tell him to bring Shaw, Schneiderlin, Clyne, Ward-Prowse, Lovren, Ramirez, Boruc and Lallana with him...;-)

Southampton are playing well but it's been 8 games - one surprise team does that every year and you want to swap our manager and players for theirs. I suppose if we'd listened to you at the same time last season we'd be watching Steve Clarke and half the West Brom team by now. For crying out loud get a grip and support your team (if you are a City supporter that is)

 

[cibaman]

of course we looked fitter than Newcastle, the team that played for us has had a nice rest whilst Newcastle went for broke to make amends for their derby and are now fucked for Saturday.

54% possession makes a big difference in extra time

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I don't have a clue what Pellegrini is like, I don't understand his personality and I haven't been handed a psychological profile of the man. And, to be quite honest I'm not too bothered what he's like, I don't particularly care what his personality is like and I probably wouldn't read a profile even if I had nothing else to do. I don't seek any deep spiritual communion with him. What I really care about is the team he puts on the field and the kind of football it plays. And last night I saw the same defensive fragility as in most of our games this season. Different defenders, same inability to deal with the good old high hoof. Different defenders, same inability to follow the man they're marking at a corner. Repeatedly we saw Newcastle lads not even having to shake off their "marker" so much as move away from him. There isn't much sign of improvement in this area of the game, and if he doesn't get a grip soon it will undermine our whole season.

So what is the manager supposed to do? Do you think they're having training sessions and he's telling them "Hey, don't worry about leaving open runners, they're no big deal". Maybe you think he's instructing them "on those long balls over the top, it's imperative that you really make it hard on ourselves and our fans, try to make things interesting!"

The fact that we were equally shambolic yesterday as we have been all season points to the fact that there's very little the manager can do. If the starting XI can't get its act together, and the backup defenders are equally bad, then we've got a host of defenders who currently aren't good enough. I know that a lot of these players have been a part of some really impressive statistical defenses, but past performance hardly guarantees future success. Unless you've got something specific tactically that the Manager needs to change (and FFS, it isn't asking the FBs to bomb on less, they're already bombing on less than in the past), then you're largely talking about selection situations. What's become clear is that you can chop and change the backups and starting XI as you'd like and it appears we don't have the necessary strength regardless of the way you mix it up. This is, unfortunately, a transfer window problem, unless DiMichelis and Kompany can form a partnership and stay fit. Either way, I honestly believe that a lot of the vulnerability we're seeing is a mixture of luck and a serious slip by all of our fullbacks. If I were Txixi, and you can all thank fuck that I'm not, I'd probably be focusing on that area in Jan. and next summer. I think we're a class below and it's having an effect on the squad.

You tell me what he's supposed to do! It's fairly obvious. They all train together. They all practice the same formations. They all train to stay with their man. But they don't deal with bog standard high balls and they don't mark a man consistently at corners. Must be the players who aren't good enough! Yet as you say all these defenders have shown real ability to defend in the past. Pellegrini is not dealing with bad players. But then you go on to draw about the most illogical conclusion you can - that this is a "transfer window problem." The best defence in the PL for the last two years, they're apparently not good enough to prevent the two most barren attacks in the PL from sticking 3 past us. Are you seriously suggesting Lescott and Nastasic or even Garcia are so bad? We're not talking about Bayern here - it's Cardiff and Villa! Yet you tell us that "there's very little a manager can do." Bollocks. Chelsea will be no better under Mourinho then? Or Moyes will be just as successful as Ferguson? Might as well bring Stuart Pearce back then. The answer can only be that he gets them out on the training pitch, then gets the lap tops out and works until he gets exactly what they should be doing through to them. At the moment they are all doing different things and look a shambles at times against even modest (and poor!) opposition. It is certainly NOT "a mixture of luck and a serious slip by all of our fullbacks." You can bet your life that he wasn't told that he wasn't told that he needn't worry because in January and next summer we'd buy a new defence so we wouldn't bother about this season. Last summer the almost universal opinion was that City needed width, a striker and a midfielder - the view was that the defence did not need any "tinkering". Then a "back up" - not a first choice - central defender might be worth it.

 

[Marvin]

Do you really think City have not improved since the start of the season?

We've just played 4 away on the trot. Won 3, lost 1. Should have really been Won 3, drawn 1 but we are improving

May I remind you that season we went out at home to Villa in the League Cup, and we didn't win a game in Europe.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

Physical preparation and mentality are not the same thing. By all accounts Moyes also implemented a tougher training schedule than Taggart ever did which has led to stories of a rift with RVP and 'over training' - its possible that Kompany's early season problems also stem from over preparation in pre-season. Who knows.

However the pre-season physical preparation, which got everyone excited on here for reasons which still continue to elude me, are distinct from the mental environment that the man in charge creates. Moyes stepping up the physical training does nothing to give his team the same belief that Taggart gave them. Pellers is a less driven, less obsessive individual than Mancini (or a Benitez or a Mourinho or a Pep) and consequently the team is less driven to go the extra 1 or 2 percent that is the difference between success and failure at the highest level. It is not even a concious thing but you just settle at the level that is expected of you collectively and individually by the man in charge. And with Pellers this level is below what is needed to win trophies consistently.

Hilarious post - pissing myself here

In case you've been living under a bluemoon rock for the last six months. Bob loved Bob and hasn't come to terms with his sacking. :)

Billy, why don't you shut up about Mancini. Most people on here are trying to talk about what is right and wrong with the team THIS season. But you are so insecure that every time there's any breath of criticism you have to hone in like a heat seeking missile on the issue of Mancini. Do you think you're the People's Commissar for Pure Thoughts with a duty, given you by the People's Revolutionary Committee to weed out counter-revolutionary thought in all its manifestations so that no-one who actually thought Mancini did a good job will either be allowed on Bluemoon or into the Etihad? Or are you, as some on here suspect, a cocky, jumped up young know-all who never rises above self-justificatory nonsense and irrelevant wind ups? We all hoped you were going away for the weekend and would give everyone a rest so that we coud discuss football and City without your incessant drivelling.

 

[blue ranger]

Interesting some not putting any blame on pellers but saying the defenders aren't good enough ........ yet the same defenders have been good enough over the last couple of seasons. It's clearly tactics - it has to be.

 

[Dribble]

Do you really think City have not improved since the start of the season?

We've just played 4 away on the trot. Won 3, lost 1. Should have really been Won 3, drawn 1 but we are improving

May I remind you that season we went out at home to Villa in the League Cup, and we didn't win a game in Europe.

Yes, but Villa are better than Cardiff and CSKA & Plzen are not in the same league as Dortmund and Ajax.

This year's Champions League group is by far the easiest we have encountered and most of us expected that we would do better against more limited opposition.

"Do you really think City have not improved since the start of the season?"

Well I've seen nothing this season that I haven't seen before so in terms of have we improved, the answer is no. Would I blame Pellers for our erratic start to the season? In the earlier games yes, because I thought we were set up all wrong and he was nowhere to be seen when it was obvious to all that his preferred 4-4-2 wasn't working.

More recently he has mixed up the formations and began to display signs of tactical flexibility which was a blessed relief for us all, although I think the fact the season was in danger of slipping away from us so early might have had more to do with this change in dogma.

So do I think he's the right man to take us forward? Well I think he deserves his chance much like Bob, Hughes, Sven and Pearce before him did, but I'll also add that he needs to give the squad the kick up the crease they seriously need because overall in the league I think we have underperformed to our reasonable expectations.

 

[moomba]

5 matches time we could easily be top 2 in the league, QF of league cup and through to the knockout stages of the champions league with two group matches still to play.

We'll be favourites in all 5 matches.

It hasnt been great so far, and Pellegrini has a lot still to prove. But some of the doom and gloom stuff is very premature.